Surgery – Diagnostic testing – Detecting nuclear – electromagnetic – or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-29
2001-09-11
Jaworski, Francis J. (Department: 3737)
Surgery
Diagnostic testing
Detecting nuclear, electromagnetic, or ultrasonic radiation
Reexamination Certificate
active
06287257
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
To configure an ultrasound system for an examination of a patient, a sonographer analyzes information about the patient to be examined in order to determine what ultrasound settings to use. The sonographer then manually configures the ultrasound system with these settings. One source of patient information is a hospital information system (“HIS”) or a radiology information system (“RIS”). In some clinical environments, information about a patient to be examined is entered into a HIS/RIS when the examination is scheduled. At the time of the examination, the sonographer can access this information via a HIS/RIS terminal. The sonographer can then interpret the relevant patient information and configure the ultrasound system accordingly. For example, the sonographer can decide which system presets or ultrasound settings to use by considering the age, weight, and condition of the patient to be studied. The sonographer can also use information stored on a HIS/RIS to determine which fields (e.g., age, sex, weight, etc.) should be added to a patient demographic worksheet and to manually populate these fields.
Recently, some ultrasound systems have been provided with the capability of interfacing with a HIS/RIS so that a sonographer can retrieve and view patient information from the ultrasound system. While this advance makes accessing the HIS/RIS more convenient for the sonographer, the sonographer still faces the sometimes difficult and time consuming task of interpreting the retrieved patient information and manually configuring the ultrasound system or patient demographic worksheet.
There is a need, therefore, for a method and system for configuring a medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system that will overcome the disadvantages described above.
SUMMARY
The present invention is defined by the following claims, and nothing in this section should be taken as a limitation on those claims.
By way of introduction, the preferred embodiments described below provide a method and system for configuring a medical diagnostic ultrasound imaging system. In one preferred embodiment, an ultrasound system analyzes patient information from a hospital information system to determine what ultrasound settings are appropriate. The ultrasound system can then automatically configure itself with these settings or can present a plurality of suggested settings to a sonographer for selection. In this way, the ultrasound system of this preferred embodiment reduces or eliminates the sometimes difficult and time consuming tasks of manually interpreting retrieved patient information and manually configuring the ultrasound system. In addition to reducing the overhead time required to start a new study, the preferred ultrasound system also reduces costs while increasing the quantity of studies that can be performed.
In another preferred embodiment, the ultrasound system uses patient information received from the hospital information system to automatically configure and/or populate a patient demographic worksheet. This preferred embodiment offers time-saving and error-reduction benefits and increases the consistency of information acquired throughout all hospital departments, which can lead to an improvement of overall hospital workflow and improved diagnosis.
The preferred embodiments will now be described with reference to the attached drawings.
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Acuson Corporation
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Jaworski Francis J.
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